Reparation in Rwanda’s gacaca courts

The Rwandan gacaca courts that dealt with the legacy of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi were inspired by a customary conflict resolution mechanism also known as gacaca – meaning “justice on the grass” – that existed in Rwandan society since pre-colonial times. Reparation was not one of the stated goals of the modernized version of gacaca. Nevertheless, the modern gacaca system had – by design – a number of characteristics that aimed at facilitating the recognition of and reparation for victims: perpetrators needed to ask for pardon and most of the trials dealt with property looted and destroyed during the genocide. Based on long term fieldwork in Rwanda, including the observation of almost 2,000 trials, this article zooms in on these two characteristics of the court systems in practice. The analysis shows how the experience of recognition differs when pardon is expressed in or outside a legal arena and whether civil reparation happens through trial proceedings or mediation.